Vatican official reaffirms teaching on divorced and remarried Catholics

Archbishop Müller says case for the admission of remarried divorcees to the sacraments 'misses the mark'

Amid rising expectations that the Catholic Church might make it easier for divorced and remarried members to receive Communion, the Vatican’s highest doctrinal official reaffirmed Church teaching barring such persons from the sacrament without an annulment of their first, sacramental marriage.

But Archbishop Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, acknowledged that many Catholics’ first marriages might be invalid, and thus eligible for annulment, if spouses had been influenced by prevailing contemporary conceptions of marriage as a temporary arrangement.

The archbishop’s words appeared in a 4,600-word article published in the Vatican newspaper on Tuesday. Speculation about a change in practice has grown since Pope Francis told reporters accompanying him on his plane back from Rio de Janeiro in July that the next Synod of Bishops would explore a “somewhat deeper pastoral care of marriage,” including the question of the eligibility of divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion.

Pope Francis added at the time that Church law governing marriage annulments also “has to be reviewed, because ecclesiastical tribunals are not sufficient for this.” Such problems, he said, exemplified a general need for forgiveness in the Church today. “The Church is a mother, and she must travel this path of mercy, and find a form of mercy for all,” the Pope said.

The Vatican announced on October 8 that an extraordinary session of the Synod of Bishops will meet from October 5-19, 2014, to discuss the “pastoral challenges of the family in the context of evangelisation.”

The announcement of the synod came amid news that the Archdiocese of Freiburg, Germany, had issued new guidelines making it easier for divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion.

Archbishop Müller’s article seemed designed to temper the expectations of change that these events have excited. The archbishop acknowledged that a “case for the admission of remarried divorcees to the sacraments is argued in terms of mercy,” but wrote that such an argument “misses the mark” in regard to the sacraments, since the “entire sacramental economy is a work of divine mercy and it cannot simply be swept aside by an appeal to the same.”

He continued: “An objectively false appeal to mercy also runs the risk of trivialising the image of God, by implying that God cannot do other than forgive.

“The mystery of God includes not only his mercy but also his holiness and his justice. If one were to suppress these characteristics of God and refuse to take sin seriously, ultimately it would not even be possible to bring God’s mercy to man.”

The prefect’s article also addressed the Eastern Orthodox practice of allowing second or third marriages even when the first is sacramentally valid, a practice Pope Francis mentioned without endorsing when speaking to reporters in July.

“This practice cannot be reconciled with God’s will, as expressed unambiguously in Jesus’ sayings about the indissolubility of marriage,” the archbishop wrote.

For the full English translation of Archbishop Müller’s speech follow this link

The institution is one that is controlled by elderly celibate men who make judgment calls for women who find themselves in difficult circumstances. Why exactly should men who have never been married be setting up rules for marriage or sex?

And an Italian/ Argentine elderly man probably is not going to have the most enlightened views on women. Of course, they are more enlightened than Benedict’s but that is a small hurdle to overcome.

And yep.. the man is so awesome with kissing babies and disabled people
in front of the cameras. So is every politician that I have ever met and I do not trust any of them.

MultitaskingLitigator

Mmm. I hope I don’t need to point out that there is actually only one form of marriage known to the Church and actually it’s not your presentation of the doctrine of marriage that we’re talking about, it’s that of the Church. Which is quite clear (look it up in the Catechism) that adultery is committed when one of the partners is married not both

“2380 Adultery refers to marital infidelity. When two partners, of whom at least one is married to another party, have sexual relations – even transient ones – they commit adultery.”

And making up concepts such as “quasi matrimonial unions” is just as dissenting from authentic teaching as propounding same sex marriage. Finally for those kind people who have asked (a) Why I am mixing up threads? It is because I am a technical klutz and (b) Whether I am billing this to some one else? No; I’m doing this in my spare time!

Älter und weiser

Sorry to see that they left the Church. The important point is that they rejected the Church; the Church didn’t reject them.
I’m sure that there is some Protest-ant community that conforms to their views.

Kristen

Wow! This is the first I have heard that Hans von Blathasar was a “lapsed” Jesuit. Do you know of any list of “Catholic” authors that should be avoided because of unsound doctrine? Thanks